App.config only read when debugging

Question

I am currently experiencing an issue that I haven't been able to resolve.

I have an application where I have this code:

AppDomain.CurrentDomain.SetData("APP_CONFIG_FILE", "App.config");
AppDomain.CurrentDomain.SetupInformation.ConfigurationFile = Path.Combine(System.Reflection.Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().Location, "App.config");
MessageBox.Show(ConfigurationSettings.AppSettings.Count.ToString());

The configuration file is indeed called App.config in the application folder (I am doing this because I have two applications reading/modifying the same config file).

When I start either of them through the Visual Studio Debugger, it correctly tells me that I have 11 appsettings. However, when run outside of the debugger, I get 0.

What might be wrong here? I am 100% sure that this code has worked in the past.

Have you tried passing the full path to App.config instead of the relative path? Perhaps, the app.config file is not resolving correctly. — Dan Waterbly, Mar 22 '11 at 13:15

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 22 '11 at 13:16

1

I was finally able to solve it myself right now. The solution is to access the configuration settings through

Configuration config = ConfigurationManager.OpenExeConfiguration(ConfigurationUserLevel.None);

answered Mar 22 '11 at 13:16

kfuglsang

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score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 22 '11 at 13:27

It looks like you are not passing the correct path to App.Config. Try this instead:

AppDomain.CurrentDomain.SetData("APP_CONFIG_FILE", "App.config");
AppDomain.CurrentDomain.SetupInformation.ConfigurationFile = Path.Combine(Path.GetDirectoryName(System.Reflection.Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().Location), "App.config"); 
MessageBox.Show(ConfigurationSettings.AppSettings.Count.ToString());

Notice the call to Path.GetDirectoryName(). Your code is getting the location to the exe file, and is then appending "App.Config" to it, which is resolving to a file that does not exist.

App.config only read when debugging

2 Answers2